Customer Reviews

Flagship (Starship, Book 5)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you were to read books of the "Starship" series one-after-the-other, you would find a tremendous about of repeated material -- themes, expressions, situations, even paragraphs lifted from one book and pasted into a later one. Indeed, if I had a nickel for every time the captain wished he had 50 'Vals' so that he could conquer the Republic . . . Well, you get my drift.

The last book, "Flagship" is so unbelievable it's pitiful. A Republic with 60,000 inhabited planets has a central administrative world that can be take by surprise by not just one, but two different small military forces is a nonsense.

I really am sorry I bought the last two books, especially for the price they are offered as kindle books. I would recommend other readers find other examples of space opera to follow, and abandon this one.

Deus ex machina

Latin for "god from the machine"; is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new character, ability, or object.

Never mind the plot inconsistencies and the poor character development, the real kicker in this book was the incredibly contrived plot device to wrap up the series. The coincidental timing of the attack by the previously unknown aliens was just dreadful.

Now, I admit it. I read the whole series, mainly because they were light and fluffy, very easy to pick up and very easy to put down. White bread books really. I should have stopped after the first book, but I like to give an author more than one book, plus, the good reviews fooled me and led me on. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice (or five times), shame on me. Never again shall I read one of your books Mr. Resnick.

Try reading the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell instead.

First off - I have never read any of Mike Resnick's works, whether a part of the Starship series or anything else. And it appears I have jumped into the series after 4 other books with this cast of characters have been written. That's what you get for grabbing something on a whim from the county library.

With that said, I found this to be an enjoyable read. It wasn't too heavy, and even the backstory on the relationships between the characters was easy to pick up on. There was just enough there (in case you hadn't read the preceding books), but it certainly didn't dwell on establishing the backstory. But this wasn't some lightweight collection of prose that the author dashed out. It is well-thought out and, to my mind at least, logical.

The story moved at a decent pace, and I really do not recall any sections that seemed to stall out. The overall storyline flowed pretty smoothly and transitioned between sections well. It's clear that Mr. Resnick has experience writing (and probably a good editor to team with) to make this book accessible to someone like me (who hasn't read anything else) and still satisfy those who follow his work (like the other 2 reviews so far).

I'd recommend this book to any fan of science fiction, particularly if you like the military sci-fi side of things. I will probably go back and try to read the preceding books in this series.

The strength of this series is in the wisecracking dialogue that flowed best before the author (unwisely, to my mind) chose to kill off one of his few characters with any dimension or (paradoxically) humanity. The almost playful nature of the first two books gave way to repetition and a scope that became too vast to support what was essentially a one-character drama. By the time we reached massive fleets, totally implausible situations and the perfectly timed intervention of an alien fleet there just wasn't a lot of plausibility left. Keith Laumer in his Retief books managed to carry this kind of thing off wonderfully -- but he kept a playfulness in his tone and a charm in his main character. Here the story took itself too seriously and yet didn't have the weight to justify that. In the end it was like eating cotton candy -- mildly pleasant going down, but then you kind of wonder why you did it.

This series started strong but in the last book I felt the story was taken off course by a plot aneurysm in the last few chapters. What started as an interesting series of how a reluctant mutinous captain and his loyal crew would thrive on the outskirts of civilization turned into an attempt at a Space Opera that was disappointing with its conclusion in this book. I still like and respect the author and will continue to read his works. I will not re-read this series.

My favorite contemporary authors include Ian Banks, Richard Morgan, and Alastair Reynolds (not my choice to like authors from Britain, they just seem to have the fresh ideas lately). I love and re-read Herbert (Dune), Asimov (Foundation), and Weber (HH Series). Great respect for Drake, Modesitt, Resnick, and Campbell (not the most creative but are consistent and reliable to my tastes). I prefer Military Sci-Fi, Empire Builders, and the dark gritty explorations of biology and science. I had been complaining about all the Vampire/Occult titles infesting the SciFi section of the Book Store when my wife bought me a Kindle. I haven't set foot in a brick and mortar book store since. I'm back up to reading a book every 2 days and have found many interesting authors at very reasonable prices.

First of all, let me start by saying I liked this series as a whole, but by the last two books, the author was re-using so much material that it felt like reliving the last four books every other sentence. The character of Wilson Cole whom I loved in the first few books for his insightfulness, and willingness to break rules to get the job done, turns into a egotistical micro-manager who is never wrong - NEVER - not in the whole book, I mean never. Even after his including himself on an "away mission" after a very long argument with his crew on why he should not go causes the deaths of forty three people, the entire crew of the Teddy R. is only able to offer condolences to him on what a horrible day he had. His attitudes and orders are inconsistent even in the same conversation from one order to the next. And by the time we have reached this book, the crew of the Teddy R. has a magic bullet crew member for every conceivable problem. There is nothing that a one hundred year old undermanned starship can't accomplish against a navy of 3,000,000 ships...

Personally I read a lot of hard science fiction, so many of the technical details that Mr. Resnick uses in his books just bug the ever-loving-crap out of me. In the same battle, he will have instant ship to ship communication hundreds of thousands of lightyears away by the good guys, and the enemy will not. Or the fact that his guns aboard the Teddy R. and every other ship, seem to be self powered, not relying on the engine for anything. the guns are also small enough to be moved by just a few men, and installed in only a day of two on any ship. These lasers have enough firepower and accuracy to shoot an antenna off an enemy ship from 100,000 miles away moving at multiple powers of the speed of light. How can you shoot a laser faster than the speed of light? I realize these issues my not keep everyone from getting engrossed in these books, but for someone who gets dumped back into realspace every time I run up against a hard scientific fact that seems to be thrown out the window, it makes the rest of the errors in this series just that much harder to swallow.

I could go on and on, but most of my issues with this series have been covered by other reviews better than I could (and probably with fewer spelling errors). All-in-all, not a bad series, but with a little extra thought and world building, this series could have been great.

This book purchased via Whispernet for my Kindle and it is a very good sci-fi book as part of this series. It to is well written an excellent story line and fun to read. Thanks!!!!!

being a long time fan of mr. resnick it is sad that i must say if this is all he has to bring its time to retire. just about the worst ending i've had the displeasure to read and the contrived machinations used to bring it to a close were so far beyond the realm of possibility the plot could have been outlined by a three year old telling a lie. BAD BAD BAD.

A++, very good part of the series which is a must read. Dana Van Valin in Colorado

I've been a huge fan of Resnick's since his ground-breaking "Birthright: The Book of Man" release many years ago. Since then he's never failed to please to one degree or another, with (IMO) his best works set in his "Birthright" universe.

This novel takes place in that universe, and is the 5th of a series. I can't go into the plot much without giving things away, but I can say that his characters are utterly believable and completely "human" when it makes sense and "not human" when they're aliens. His settings are fleshed out and "feel" right, and the motives and actions of everybody make sense both within the story and within the larger "Birthright" universe.

A rollicking space adventure that has a bit of everything--betrayal, space battles, insane plans, pointless brutality, good guys, bad guys, and guys with decidedly mixed motivations.

Highly recommended.